Dudley attempts to kiss Maud

Dudley attempts to kiss Maud after turning a complaint about his lack of money into a demand for personal access. Maud refuses him, warns that she will call the servants, and makes clear that his father’s supposed instruction cannot make an unwanted intimacy acceptable. The encounter ends with Dudley leaving angrily, while Maud’s decision not to report him leaves the episode unresolved within a household where her authority and safety are compromised by guardianship.

Background and Stakes

Dudley’s grievance begins with money. He complains that he has no money except what reaches him through his father and resents being kept so tightly; Maud suggests that he might earn some himself. He replies that the executors of her father’s will owe him money and implies that he will soon receive a substantial sum. His remarks draw Maud’s inheritance and the family’s financial arrangements into a conversation that he then redirects toward her.

The will gives Dudley’s father, Silas Ruthyn, a central position in Maud’s life: Silas is appointed her sole guardian, with parental authority until she reaches twenty-one, and she is to live under his care at Bartram-Haugh. The will also directs the trustees to provide Silas with an annual sum for her maintenance, education, and expenses. In a private explanation, Doctor Bryerly warns Maud that if she dies before twenty-one, the entire property will pass to Silas, who meanwhile has custody and authority over her. The episode therefore takes place within a legal and domestic arrangement in which Maud is an heiress but does not exercise independent control over her person or circumstances.

The Advance and Maud’s Refusal

Dudley first hints that he intends to buy something for Maud when he gets money, then says that he expects something in return. He appeals to the command to honor one’s father, treating Silas’s wishes as if they settled what Maud must permit. That appeal turns parental authority into leverage: Dudley presents the supposed instruction not as a matter Maud can question, but as an obligation she should satisfy.

He then praises Maud and says he will take a kiss despite her blushes. He recalls that he did not understand why he had failed to kiss her when Silas had told him to do so on an earlier occasion, and now insists that she will not deny him. Maud rises in anger as Dudley approaches with his arms extended. She tells him to stop and stand back, warning that she will call the servants; she also begins calling for Milly. Dudley dismisses her alarm as a fuss over harmless play, but his claim does not alter the fact that she has clearly refused.

Dudley turns away and leaves with an angry chuckle. Maud interprets the attempted intimacy as an outrage, not as the playful gallantry he would have her accept. Her anger is the defining response of the scene: although she is embarrassed by her involuntary blush, she does not mistake it for consent, and she resists with all the force she can muster.

Household Authority and Aftermath

After Dudley leaves, Milly finds Maud alone and angry rather than frightened. Maud initially decides to complain to Silas, but the Curate is with him, and by the time he has gone Maud has cooled. Her awe of her uncle returns. She imagines that he would treat Dudley’s conduct as a merely playful piece of gallantry, and decides instead that Dudley has learned a lesson and will think twice before repeating it. With Milly’s agreement, she lets the matter rest.

That choice limits the immediate consequences of Dudley’s withdrawal. Maud’s expectation of how Silas would respond helps explain why she does not seek his intervention, even though she has just been pressed to accept Dudley’s claim of paternal authorization. Dudley, for his part, is huffed afterward and appears infrequently, remaining sulky and silent when he does appear. Maud takes comfort in the prospect that he will soon leave, but the encounter does not establish that the underlying conflict has been settled.

Significance

The scene makes the gap between Maud’s legal status and lived autonomy concrete. She is the beneficiary of her father’s estate, yet the guardianship arrangement places her under Silas’s authority, and Dudley attempts to use that authority as a reason she should accept his advance. His financial grievance and his appeal to filial obedience frame intimacy as something owed in return, while Maud’s refusal insists on her right to set a boundary regardless of what Silas may have said.

The episode also foreshadows the danger of the household’s assumptions about Maud and Dudley. Maud fears that Silas would minimize what happened, and so she keeps the incident from him; her immediate safety depends on her own resistance and on Dudley’s decision to leave. His later silence offers temporary relief, not a resolution of the unequal power relations that made the attempted advance possible.